Chapter 79
Chapter 79
<I hate it. Why should I do that?>
Sian Terezia’s sister, about two years younger, wouldn’t listen.
Not just refusing to listen – she absolutely refused to listen.
While you might expect the legitimate Imperial Princess to be disobedient and quite arrogant, his sister was famous for being kind.
The gentle and benevolent Princess Lil.
From the imperial citizens to the royal elders and nobles – no one disliked his sister.
Yet, this angel-like sister would only become demonic and disobedient toward Sian Terezia.
His demon-like sister, who would argue with everything Sian said, never do what he told her to, and automatically do the opposite of whatever he asked.
So naturally, they couldn’t get along.
<Lil, just do what I tell you.>
<Why should I?>
<You clearly know what I’m saying is right, so why are you being like this?>
<You really have to ask? Because I hate listening to anything you say.>
Anyway, while everyone called her the incarnation of an angel, he had one sister who seemed desperate to devour him.
What happened to her?
“She must be dead.”
She probably died without getting to bloom, perishing along with the empire he sank.
When she was by his side, she was so irritating he could barely stand it, but when destruction approached, he couldn’t even see her face properly.
Through hundreds of repeated lives, he had even fewer chances to see her.
Since she was the Imperial Princess who needed to be protected above all others, she had even less reason to meet him on the frontlines of battle.
<Lil, you can’t stay here. You need to leave the Imperial Palace as quickly as possible.>
<Brother, Ash is dead. They say he was stabbed by a monster and died.>
<Lil, this isn’t time for crying. Listen to me. You need to leave the palace.>
<…Why should I?>
With an army waiting for him, Sian pleaded with Lil.
Because he had lived far longer than her, please just listen to him this once.
But seeing Lil lost in grief over news of her fiancé’s death, Sian finally had to change his words at the end.
<No, Lil. Don’t leave the Imperial Palace no matter what.>
<…>
<The palace is safest, so stay here quietly.>
Ah, I really hate this world.
Since she would automatically do the opposite of whatever I said, she probably left the palace.
If I had known this would happen, I should have just told her to stay comfortably in the palace until the end.
The empire would sink beneath the sea and everyone would die anyway.
I wonder if I made her suffer needlessly.
Sian killed time with a haggard expression, suddenly overwhelmed by suffocating memories of embracing her.
Looking at Seiren strangely reminded him of Lil.
Sian had suffered countless times from memories that surfaced whenever he started to forget. And that’s ultimately why he headed to the capital.
Although, Irina was uneasy and not particularly willing.
* * *
As soon as he arrived in the capital, he left without saying anything to Irina.
The first place he headed was the temple.
The white, massive temple wasn’t as grand as his empire’s had been, but it was still decent enough.
The temple walls were covered in masterpieces depicting world history.
The breathtakingly magnificent paintings were similar to those in the corridors where he played as a child.
Looking at the temple that dealt with obvious creation myths and praised god’s greatness strangely twisted his insides.
He couldn’t help but sneer at talk of newly born saints.
Shouldn’t a saint rightfully be the most noble Imperial Princess of the Obedih Empire?
Not some commoner of unknown birth.
“Nothing remains.”
Visiting the temple hoping to find any records about the great destruction, he couldn’t find any historical records at all.
The Holy Empire of Obedih and the Imperial House of Terezia.
Even if that empire had fallen and vanished now, he had hoped to find records somewhere of how glorious and beautiful it was, how lovely and magnificent a land.
But what he faced was the fact that Obedih had become forgotten history that no longer existed.
That made him despair.
“…What was I supposed to save the world for?”
Even if you had given up, nothing would have changed for me.
He finally turned away in disappointment from the wall that claimed to depict the ‘Great Destruction’ but merely showed a beautiful night sky.
“What’s this?”
As soon as he turned around, he faced a brown-haired woman.
The woman had a vague impression.
“Hello, I am Leilyranda Jackmüller.”
In contrast to her gentle smiling face, the aura she gave off was extremely dangerous.
“…”
Leilyranda Jackmüller didn’t seem particularly concerned by the lack of response.
Rather, she took it a step further, stepping back and curtsying as if greeting someone of high rank.
“I am honored to meet Your Highness, the Crown Prince of the Holy Empire of Obedih.”
* * *
“Big sis, I succeeded!”
The door burst open, and a cheerful voice rang out.
Unfortunately, the people inside were dying from overwork at the time.
They briefly lifted their heads at the noise, confirmed it was Seiren, and returned to their work.
Seiren stood before me wearing a flowing white dress with a thick fur jacket over it.
I, too, had been extremely busy lately, traveling between the capital and Leknes preparing the shop and searching for places to promote.
“Huh?”
“I said I succeeded!”
“At what?”
When I asked again with a dazed mind from lack of sleep, Seiren held out two stones to me with an exasperated look.
One was a ‘Philosopher’s Stone (D+)’ and the other was a skill stone.
“Oh… you didn’t return the skill stone. I told you to return it right away since big sis shouldn’t lose it.”
“Why do you start with scolding when I brought good news? Couldn’t you praise me first?”
I sighed, “ehh” and got up from my seat, rustling around.
Putting on a thick jacket over my shoulders, I took Seiren outside.
The wind wrapped around my whole body with each trudging step.
Ugh, cold.
The northern cold is too harsh for someone from the south to endure.
“So, what did you succeed at?”
Seiren showed me the two stones again with quite a pitiful expression.
Then she seemed to concentrate as if using holy power, and soon after, a chunk of ‘ice cream’ appeared and fell to the ground.
“Oh…”
“I succeeded!”
“Oh!”
Ding!
[SYSTEM | ‘Overcoming Holy Power’s Limits!’]
[SYSTEM | Congratulations, ‘Irina Seike’ with your pitiful innate holy power. Using the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ item, you have succeeded in overcoming holy power’s limits!]
[SYSTEM | Now it seems there will be no restrictions on skill use~!]
Ohhh!
So storing holy power in the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and using that holy power to activate skills was correct.
It seemed simple, but there must have been some problem, as Seiren had struggled continuously before finally succeeding.
But it didn’t end there.
Ding!
The system sound rang once more.
[SYSTEM | Congratulations! ‘Skill’ ‘External Sharing’ has become possible!]
[SYSTEM | ‘External Sharing’ is a function that allows ‘System’ functions to be activated externally without the ‘Player’]
“…You mean skills can be used without me?”
[That’s one way to put it!]
[Using the skill stone and philosopher’s stone, skills can be maintained continuously even without you, the subject.]
Not understanding how that was possible, I just stared at the skill stone with wide eyes while Seiren started explaining one by one.
“So you can’t just use it freely, it needs your magic as support, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“Well, you need to send the holy power from the philosopher’s stone to the skill stone, right? Holy power won’t just go on its own if you say ‘go!'”
I bounced on my feet, wanting to try it right away.
“I want to try it right now.”
“Yeah. But big sis, there’s a problem – this philosopher’s stone has a limit to how much holy power it can hold.”
According to Seiren, the ‘Philosopher’s Stone (D+)’ I gave her already had fissures, and she had carved additional ones to match my holy power waveform.
So for now, only the ‘Philosopher’s Stone (D+)’ can be used.
“I tried to carve the one I have, but it’s too hard. To create fissures in this one, we’d probably need brother’s or Lord Cassis’s help.”
That can wait for later.
I immediately took the skill stone and philosopher’s stone and went out to the garden.
Seiren began drawing a large magic circle, and I summoned an additional ‘Mass Production (A0)’ skill stone.
“Supply holy power here, and activate the ability here.”
Following her words, I placed the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ and two ‘Skill Stones’ in their respective positions.
“Now activate the magic circle.”
When we activated the magic circle, the garden started rumbling with a humming sound.
“Are you sure this is okay?”
“Yes.”
“Really…?”
Just as Seiren nodded with a prim expression, as if wondering why I was so worried, ice cream started falling from the sky with a “whoosh” sound.
“It’s snowing outside!”
“Wow, there wasn’t any forecast for snow.”
“But aren’t these snowballs a bit big?”
“Oh my, Butler, the snow is melting!”
Ah…
The already white world started turning even whiter.
“Ah, we didn’t set the activation point!”
Though there was a somewhat extreme accident, it’s fortunate we found a solution for mass production before opening the shop and launching the brand.
“Lady Irina! Lady Seiren!”
“Yes, Will…”
“What is this ice cream snow?”
“Well…”
Before I could make excuses, Seiren boldly spoke first.
“We were just practicing abilities for business. Is there a problem?”
That’s not it…
I think I understand why Isiel was worried about sending Seiren to Luwin.
